Chapter Text
Sure feels like you're betraying me.
Stratt readied every document, every research, every study, everything. It would be counter-productive if the officials could not get all the physical evidence they needed to incarcerate her.
The monitor in front of her stayed on, mute. The clock counted down to T minus 20.
T minus 11
10
9
8
7
Her phone rang.
"Stratt."
"We are being blocked by an unknown entity on our launch path."
"What?" Her hand stilled over the thick, bound tome of Astrophage study and experiments. Grace's name graced the title page.
"There's an object on collision path with the Hail Mary. We cannot launch."
The door banged close behind her back as she marched to the control room. The Hail Mary must launch. Nothing shall get in the way of it.
"Nuke it. Make the necessary calculations for as little collateral damage as possible. I want thew crew ship off the ground."
Rocky stayed where he stood, as twenty two members of Blip-A crew did their final check of the equipment, materials, and belongings to carry onboard the ship.
"Xenonite supply line, full good."
"Food storage holds steady. Portion check, clear!"
"All medicines are ready to go."
He started. He locked onto the distinct silhouette of the captain, jagged and angular. Right after the medic's supply check, the captain would stood in the middle of them all and give a rousing speech that started with
It is my best honor
"It is my best honor—“
to lead our best of the best
"—to lead our best of the best—"
on a mission
"—on a mission—"
to save our world from the plague from the Beyond
"— to save our world from the plague from the Beyond."
Rocky let out a wheeze as the crew stomped the leg they got their Petrova line etched in response. He had been working in the Dome with Grace and just gone to sleep, Grace watching over him, and now he was in the middle of the pre-launch thrum all those years ago, the entire crew as alive as they could be.
Like a dream, which was impossible.
Grace explained the concept of dreaming to him once. It had been a fascinating conversation, to know a brain can fabricate something out of subconscious processes. That very same concept did not apply to Eridians. They didn't dream. Their brain was only active for life support operations. So he knew whatever was happening, was real.
Not any hallucinogens either. He would know that.
Surrounded by crewmates that were supposed to be dead, he had blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.
"None of you woke up."
♩♩♬♪♩♪♩♬♪♩, the captain paused his final check-up and turned towards him, carapace emitting sound of confusion. "Rocky, what did you say, question?"
He didn't say Rocky but his Eridian name; Rocky'd just gotten used to thinking of his name as "Rocky". The captain waited for his answer. A seasoned Eridian of 324.1 years his senior, who had the authroity to call a thrum for crew member picking (or kicking) for the entire mission to Tau Ceti. Rocky ran through scenarios in his mind but he knew one thing for certain. Whatever was going on, he must stay on the Blip-A crew. He twisted his claws together.
"Up in space, there are fast moving particles, faster than everything we've known. They damage cells, make our blood toxic and eventually kill us. The ship doesn't have anything to shield us against those cosmic rays. But Astrophage is made of water so they are effective barrier against the radiation sickness. Instead of storing Astrophage at the back of the ship around my workshop, we circulate Astrophage throughout the entire ship. We protect ourselves from space particles and we will all be safe."
Silence met his answer. Rocky twitched in place, dared not to direct any more attention to himelf. This crew deserved to live and complete the mission alongside him and if his tirade brought more questions than answers, he was doing his part of keeping them alive. The captain turned towards ♩♪♪♬♪♩♬♩♪♩♬, the astrophysicist and asked.
"Can you prove Rocky's observation?"
♩♪♪♬♪♩♬♩♪♩♬ hopped forward, pulling out a stack of blank paper from her satchel. "I have never heard of these cosmic rays before but there's much we yet know about the expanse above." Then she turned towards him. "If Rocky has anything more to add, I am ready to listen and perform necessary experiments to confirm. Our launch time will be affected."
Rocky reached for the paper and pen from her claws and started drawing out the diagram of a cosmic ray detector, the design as clear as the day Grace had shown him. "This device detects cosmic ray." He pointed to the vapor chamber. "This part has a supersaturated vapor environment. Passing cosmic ray particles ionize the air and leave trails. Make three devices for comparison, one down here, one in upper atmosphere, one on ship. Down here has no trails because our air pressure and magnetic field stops all the radiation from reaching us." He passed the paper back to ♩♪♪♬♪♩♬♩♪♩♬, who contemplated it for a long time, and rocked back and forth on all five feet. "Mission dangerous, we must prepare well. We all must live."
Eridians never stayed quiet. There was always sounds, noises, rumbles and tumbles. But within the span of 5.9 minutes, Rocky had draped a cover of silence over hir entire Blip-A crew.♩♩♬♪♩♪♩♬♪♩— let's call the captain ‘Fishing’ because that was the most scary period of Rocky's entire life and the captain sometimes was scary — Fishing tapped his feet on the ground. "I will not ask how you get all this knowledge, Rocky. I only ask that if there's anything that you know that minimize the risk for this entire mission and our crew, you are more than welcome to share with all of us."
He could only nod. Then he beat a hasty retreat, all five hearts ratcheting inside of him at the sheer impossibility of it all.
He told Adrian of the future that he lived through. Of course he did. Everything including the leaky space blob called Grace that he had come to consider his best friend in the entire universe, and the one he wanted to reach now, once more.
Which led to him being called crazy by Adrian. Well, they didn't use that specific word. It was just the way they sang their irritation all day every day for the past 31 days — Earth days, he was used to using Earth measurements— as the Blip-A crew began their assessment of cosmic radiation, the effects it had on Eridian and making suitable adjustment for the protection for the crew was telling of what Adrian felt about his wild story. Adrian even called him "a soft-shelled formless single cell microbe", which was, well, uncalled for. He wasn't Grace, he was very solid, thank you very much.
Rocky waited for Adrian's irritation to run its course. They were the smoldering flow running underneath Erid to his constant. Heat always sought entropy and would eventually reach equilibrium, as was the law of physics. In the mean time, he told the crew about the planet that housed Astrophage's nature predator, Tau Ceti e, the planet Grace had named after Adrian.
"So you're saying, you know why Tau Ceti's heat signature remains unchanged." Tau — the astrophysicist— slumped. She swung two legs in the air, shrilling."This is absurd. How can you possibly know that, question?"
Rocky didn't blame her. He still hadn't wrapped his head around that either. But first thing first. He tapped the new carving on his leg, Mary — 3 lines parellel to each other — in the Petrova line, a hexagon close to the small planet. Some crew members leant in closer.
"Yes. I told you. Tau Ceti is Astrophage's home system. Astrophage evolves there. Astrophage is cell. Cells make up all lives. Predator evolve to eat cells."
"How could you possibly know all this, question? Our space sensors are good, but not good enough to detect life!" Tau threw wide her hands then brought them down on the ground with a rumbling thump. "And certainly not an evolutionary model!"
All the crew's attention was on him now. He shifted from leg to leg, nerves making him move. He tapped his fists together and imagined one fist was Grace's. "I was there with friend Grace. We found amoeba that eats Astrophage. We brought them back to Erid and seeded them on Threeworld. Erid was saved."
He waited for someone to say something. It had gotten so quiet he could hear the distant rumbling of Erid's roaring flow far underneath him. Then sounds expanded.
"Time does not allow one to travel backward—
"Who is friend Grace, question?"
"Intelligent lifeform exists! I am correct!"
"Not believing until I hear them!"
"Did you perhaps have too much too eat, question?"
As the questions grew weirder, Adrian hopped up to press right beside him. "A bunch of premature oxidized minerals."
"They are smart though," Rocky chittered back. He heard three members of Blip-A pull out their paper and pen and were now drawing graph and calculation.
"Not as smart as you and I." The mate of his life, the beautiful sound of his existence, preened.
Rocky laughed. "You're right, ♪♫♫♪." He soaked in their presence, enjoying the rough pattern on their side, the heat their body emanating. He was always the safest with Adrian watching over his sleep.
And he might have to leave them behind again. "Do you want to be a part of crew, question?" He knew what their answer was going to be but it did no harm to ask again.
Adrian knocked their carapace against his, their weight encircling him. "No, ♫♪♪♫. If I go, who builds the dome for friend Grace, question?"
Logical, yes. Less sad, no. The total distance of Erid to Tau Ceti then back, then from Tau Ceti to Sol, then back to Erid rested at 37.8 light years. Adrian would wait for him for IVI∀∀∀ℓ days, ∀λVV+ seconds, without a word of complaint.
"Friend Grace important to you," they continued. "You wouldn't exchange your time for anything that is not important."
Rocky could have sung his entire life away and never tell all the tales about Adrian, how amaze amaze amaze they were. He rumbled, hearing all Adrian's sharp edges and smooth faces. He truly could not have asked for a better mate.
♫♪♪♩♩♪♪♫♩♫♪ — the fabric craftsman, Fa — pushed forward, his metallic claws snapping on the ground and stood in front of him with all his legs stretched up.
"This cannot be true. You are turning imagination into facts. You lie."
Rocky barely had the time to react before Adrian was already there.
"You do not call Rocky a liar."
"Adrian, you're bias." Fa snapped back.
"I am the leading expert in the entire astrobiology thrum. You dare suggest my relationship interfere with my judgement, question?"
Rocky loved Adrian a lot. Had he told Adrian that when he woke up? He should tell them again, just to be sure.
"We discovered there exists multiple other stars other than our own just prior, what is to say time cannot move backwards, question? Or there exists another intelligent lifeform that is five hearts in a sack of water, question?" Shivers and shrieks passed through the entire crew. Adrian pressed on. "I'm not part of crew, but I am part of this entire mission. I say this, if things seem impossible, then it might be the only answer."
Fishing chimed in from behind the crew. "We call a thrum. We all decide."
The results from the cloud chamber returned and were analyzed by the entire astrophysicist thrum before a Blip-A crew thrum commenced. Above Erid's atmosphere, radiation broke down cells and turned Eridian's blood sample into a poisonous chemical. Had they not learnt of this, the crew would have lost their lives before reaching Tau Ceti. With Rocky's input, they tested another chamber on the ship, this one having an extra layer of Astrophage surrounding it. The result came back positive. The chamber with Astrophage layer saw lesser effect.
Doubts and concern mingled in their shared mind when the topic of Rocky himself came up. He couldn't help it. He let out a long note. Questions arose on the validity of his claim. Yes, he was correct about the fast moving particles up above Erid but that was testable. They could not have possibly analyzed Adrian's atmosphere, a planet 10 light years away to find traces of life and substantiate his claim. If they believed him, then they believed him. Fishing's firm stance encompassed their mind. Rocky had never been wrong, he was the best of the best, if he remained certain, then, as a crew of the best minds in all of Eridians, it was their duty to support him.
A mind asked about Grace. What that was, and what Rocky wanted to do. Grace was the bravest human he had ever met. Grace saved Erid and him when he could have gone back to Earth and doomed Eridians to a slow, cold death. Grace was his best friend, he was the first life he talked with after 46 years of solitude, when all Blip-A crew didn't wake up. He could not think of an existence where he hadn't met Grace. Rocky hesitated, he hadn't considered that far yet. He needed to save Erid first, and then made his way over to Sol and Earth to meet Grace. He wasn't sure what came after that but—
Another chimed in. If Rocky turned back time, what could be the chance of this Grace also turned back time and looked for ways to reach Erid. This one Rocky could answer. Earthen lived shorter, one-eight of an Eridian average lifespan. Right now, by his calculation, Grace hadn't existed yet. Rocky had time at Tau Ceti to study Sol and Earth for Astrophage powered ship, Mary.
The thrum ended in agreement to all the changes he suggested for Blip-A. Without delay, the engineer thrum got to work. Astrophage power lines and fuel tanks were reconfigured to be spread out across Blip-A instead of focusing around Rocky's workshop. A new section of steel was grafted to Blip-A, designated as Taumoeba farm, completed with rows upon rows of xenonite breeder tank. Multiple chains of 100km long each were added to the side of Blip-A. And to withstand Adrian's gravity pull, more xenonite was plated over Blip-A entire structure.
Rocky tracked the elevator, always on, always moving Eridians and materials onto Blip-A. He looked forward to Grace and Earth.